Summary

Around 330 B.C., a remarkable man named Pytheas set out from the Greek colony of Massalia (now Marseille) to explore the fabled, terrifying lands of northern Europe--a mysterious, largely conjectural zone that, according to Greek science, was too cold to sustain human life and yet was somehow, they knew, the source of precious commodities such as tin, amber, and gold.

Whether Pytheas headed an expedition or traveled alone, he was the first literate man to visit the British Isles and the coasts of France and Denmark, and there is convincing evidence that he traveled on to Iceland and the edge of the ice-pack--an astonishing voyage at the time. Pytheas's own account of the journey, titled On the Ocean and published in about 320 B.C., has not survived, though it echoes in the works of ancient historians like Herodotus and Strabo. Their allusions to his voyage represent the beginnings of European history and underscore how much of a pioneer Pytheas was, for Britain remained without further explorers until Julius Caesar and his legions landed there almost 300 years later.

Archaeologist Barry Cunliffe knows perhaps more than anyone about the world through which Pytheas traveled, and he has sifted the archaeological and written records to re-create this staggering journey. Beginning with an invaluable pocket history of early Mediterranean civilization, Cunliffe illuminates what Pytheas would have seen and experienced--the route he likely took to reach first Brittany and then England; the tin-mining and, even then, evidence of ancient cultures he would have witnessed onshore; the challenge of sailing in a skin boat; the magic of amber and the trade routes by which it reached the Mediterranean. In telling this story, Cunliffe has chronicled an essential chapter in the history of civilization.

Author Notes

Barry Cunliffe, a professor of European archaeology at the University of Oxford, is the author of several books on the Romans and on Celtic and Iron Age Europe. He lives in Oxford, England.

(Publisher Fact Sheets) Sir Barrington Windsor "Barry" Cunliffe is a British archaeologist and academic. He was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford. Cunliffe was born on December 10, 1939. He became a professor at an early age and became involved in the excavation of the Fishbourne Roman Palace in Sussex. Cunliffe was knighted on June 17, 2006.

Some of his publications include: Fishbourne: A Roman Palace and Its Garden; The Celtic World; Facing the Ocean: The Atlantic and Its Peoples, 8000 BC to AD 1500; The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek: The Man Who Discovered Britain; and Britain Begins.

Booklist Review

Although now lost, Pytheas' On the Ocean, an account of his 350 B.C. voyage to Britain, was excerpted by ancient authors. From these snippets, Cunliffe has reconstructed Pytheas' exploit. He also includes modern archaeological findings to highly readable effect. The symbiosis of the two sorts of evidence makes for a captivating journey. Cunliffe describes the economic world of Pytheas' hometown, Massalia, now Marseilles. To the south lay the Carthaginians; to the east, the Romans; and to the north, the Celtic barbarians. From the Celtic lands came tin and amber, and Pytheas was likely an emissary of Massalia's merchants, perhaps to confirm an overland trade route to evade Carthage's control of the Pillars of Hercules. Maps helpfully trace Pytheas' route, as best Cunliffe can infer it from ancient place-names cited by hostile geographers like Strabo, who thought Pytheas concocted his tales. But archaeology proves Greco-Celtic commerce existed, sealing Pytheas' place --albeit an elusive one--in discovery annals. An enjoyable, compact excursion of imagined adventure and ancient history. Gilbert Taylor.

Publisher's Weekly Review

Over 2,300 years ago, Pytheas of Massalia (now Marseille) embarked on an unprecedented journey to lands beyond the known boundaries of his world: the wilds of northern Europe. He was the first Greek to do so, and upon his return, he chronicled his adventures in On the Ocean alas, no longer extant. Many ancient writers put little stock in its revelations. The Roman geographer Strabo and the Roman historian Polybius, for instance, questioned whether Pytheas even made the voyage at all. But Oxford archeologist Cunliffe (The Ancient Celts) argues that there is enough evidence to prove that Pytheas discovered tin fields in Brittany, amber forests in the Baltic region and Ultima Thule, or Iceland. In this dramatic piece of historical detective work, Cunliffe employs archeology, literary studies, geography and imagination to recreate Pytheas's possible routes from the Mediterranean to Iceland and back home again. Cunliffe also draws on the writings of Pliny the Elder and the geographer Dicaearchus to demonstrate that several of Pytheas's near contemporaries welcomed his discoveries about the nature of the solstice and the influence of the moon on the tides. Although Cunliffe often has to speculate in the absence of Pytheas's own words, he nevertheless amasses strong evidence that Pytheas did indeed make his voyage. What Cunliffe neglects to do, however, is make Pytheas the convincing, three-dimensional hero of his own tale. 15 b&w illus., 6 maps. (May 13.) Forecast: Walker excels at selling this kind of book: think Dava Sobel's Longitude and Ross King's Brunelleschi's Dome. Cunliffe's book has been tapped as a main selection of the Natural Science Book Club and an alternate selection of the History Book Club, and Penguin has already bought the paperback rights. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Choice Review

About 320 BCE a Greek sailor from Massalia (Marseille), intrigued by stories of the amber route, Northern tin mines, and, above all, the six-month days, boiling springs, and frozen seas of Ultima Thule, decided to go and suss them out for himself rather than relying, as everyone else did, on the often fantastic reports enshrined in handbooks of geography. This required courage. Beyond the Mediterranean lay Ocean, and Anaximander's apeiron--a boundless, primordial infinity. Pytheas went. First across France by the Aude-Garonne tin route, then northward up the British Isles, taking bearings as he went, on by way of the Orkneys, and finally to Iceland and the Arctic Circle. On his return he wrote an account of his travels (now lost except for extracts), only to be dismissed as a liar by armchair pundits like Strabo. Cunliffe (Univ. of Oxford) has had the excellent idea of resuscitating the fragmentary evidence and vindicating Pytheas's veracity on a firm archaeological basis. The result is a gripping narrative. Unfortunately, since it has to be patched together from fragments, there are few references, these being deemed, wrongly, overly strong meat for the general reader. A second edition should have them. All general and academic collections. P. M. Green University of Iowa